I have already written in this article about how the search for purpose has caused anxiety and frustration in many searchers.
Studying a little bit about economist Max Weber’s vision in a lesson on the Thinking Revolution, I found that his approach to vocation makes a lot of sense and helps explain why this nuisance is being pursued in a quest for a sense of purpose.
For Weber, the idea of vocation was introduced with the Protestant Reform. Vocation would be, first of all, a way of projecting religiosity into everyday acts.
In addition, considering the idea of predestination and that God already had his chosen ones, the practice of good works would be a way of showing that one belonged to this class. And above all, getting rich through a vocation would be the proof of divine blessing. Enriching was “excused” for having been achieved through a vocation.
In his meditation on time, Deepak Chopra says that dharma is to follow our purpose, our path, our joy. It is to be aligned with the flow. “Dharma is the evolutionary action that supports our spiritual awakening.”
For me the idea of dharma sounds much lighter. It is put in a practical way (“action”), but it is accompanied by the feeling that when one is aligned, there is no effort; there is no friction.
In dharma you identify with one of the divine archetypes (love, beauty, truth, justice, goodness, wholeness, power, self), and apply that to what you are doing, whatever it is.
You enter the state of unity, and because of that, attract prosperity – or just live it, feel it, no matter how much money is in your checking account. The struggle to get somewhere ends, because you simply stand and accept the flow.
Despite the name, to me it seems like something much simpler to be applied in a practical way.
According to physicist Amit Goswami, the idea of ”meaning” comes from the mind.
In fact, it is the mind (ego-driven) that seeks explanation for things, while the essence simply trusts and goes with and in the flow. You’re where you belong. You always have free will and you can change things if your intuition says so, but this is different from looking for something that seems never to be within your reach. The essence simply IS, and accepts that everything, absolutely everything, has meaning.